You Can Now Watch the Long-Lost Thomas the Tank Engine Pilot Episode for the First Time Ever
Created in 1983, the five-minute episode introduced the signature elements of “Thomas & Friends,” including Ringo Starr’s soothing narration and hand-crafted model trains. But for decades, it collected dust in the archives
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The 35-millimeter film flickers. An arm descending from the blue sky holds a clapboard over a quaint railway station, where custom-made train models with expressive human faces wait for action. The familiar voice of narrator Ringo Starr sets the scene: “One day, Thomas was at the junction when Gordon shuffled in with some trucks.”
In April 1983, filming began on the pilot episode of one of television’s most enduring and iconic children’s shows, “Thomas & Friends.”
The pilot, titled “Down the Mine,” was a success. Running from 1984 to 2021, “Thomas & Friends” aired more than 500 episodes following the adventures, mishaps and lessons of Thomas the Tank Engine, a train who chugs around the fictional island of Sodor with his fellow locomotive friends.
But after it was shown to studio executives at British television channel ITV in 1983, the film canisters containing the pilot episode disappeared into the archives. It wasn’t until recently that Ian McCue, who produced the series from 2010 to 2020, and his team “stumbled across” the footage and pieced it together “with great love and care,” he tells BBC News’ Paul Glynn.
Following restoration work, as well as a brand new soundtrack from Mike O’Donnell, one of the show’s first composers, the toy company Mattel released the pilot episode on YouTube on May 9 in celebration of the 80th anniversary of Thomas’ first appearance in a 1945 book by Wilbert Awdry, who wrote about Thomas’ escapades in The Railway Series.
After numerous failed attempts to bring Awdry’s books to television between the 1950s and 1970s, producer Britt Allcroft finally succeeded in 1984, after “Down the Mine” showcased the series’ potential, according to People’s Angela Andaloro. Its new release offers “longtime fans and new audiences the chance to reconnect with the beloved adventures of ‘Thomas & Friends’ in new and nostalgic ways,” Mattel executive Roberto Stanichi says in a statement.
With cheery music, soothing narration (from stars like George Carlin, Alec Baldwin and Pierce Brosnan in later seasons) and hand-crafted models (until CGI eventually replaced them), “Thomas & Friends” was a joyful, relaxing balm for young viewers.
“Children live these days in a fast-paced world, but I don’t think children really change,” Allcroft explained in a 1995 BBC documentary, per the New York Times’ Victor Mather. “They need in their lives gentleness, comfort.”
The episodes were also infused with moral lessons from Awdry, who, besides being a railway enthusiast and children’s author, was also an Anglican minister.
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In the five-minute pilot episode, Thomas makes a rude remark to Gordon. “He felt very pleased with himself,” Starr narrates, as Thomas leaves the junction with a mean chuckle. When he arrives at an old lead mine, Thomas ignores a sign warning that the tracks are positioned above old mining tunnels and cannot support an engine’s weight. Predictably, the tracks collapse under Thomas, and only Gordon has the power to pull Thomas out of the ditch.
“I’m sorry I was cheeky,” Thomas says to Gordon, after the larger locomotive saves the day.
“That’s alright, Thomas,” Gordon replies. “You made me laugh.”
In terms of production, the episode wasn’t perfect. “There’s teething problems that they would have had had they not done that [the pilot],” McCue tells BBC News. Smoke leaked out from Thomas’ face-plate instead of his smokestack, and radio control devices that operated the locomotives frequently malfunctioned. But the pilot offered a chance to work out technical kinks before the first season aired.
“I think there’s a sort of a lovely charm and innocence about it,” he adds. “I think even as a pilot, as a test piece, it still has that lovely, classic, timeless story to it, and the voices—everything is just so delightful.”
